of carpet tile backings - Interface

18
Just the facts about backings
Less impact or higher
recyclability?
Other key questions are:
Will the material actually
be recycled? And will the
gains of avoiding virgin
materials compensate for
the impacts created in the
recycling process?
The ideal design process
considers the following:
• Uses materials with low
impact in the first place
• Uses materials with a high
degree of recyclability into the
same materials
• Designs the whole product
so that each material can be
easily separated
• Designs the product and
process where separation of
materials can be done using a
minimum of energy
• Optimises impacts for the full
product life cycle, not just part
of it.
However, in the real world,
compromises are often needed.
A typical case would be using
a backing with higher impact
that could be beneficial later
because of high recyclability.
That might be a clever choice
if you assume 100% of the
products will be returned from
customers for recycling. But
reality is not perfect and the rate
of return will be less. So the key
to deciding on this compromise
of higher impact with lower
recyclability relies on having the
right assumption for the return
rate. Being over-optimistic could
create more impact.
InterfaceFLOR is working
hard not to make this type of
compromise in the future by
researching new materials and
recycling methods that can
use both materials with lower
embodied impact and a high
degree of recyclability.